The Range: The Tucson Weekly's Daily Dispatch

Curious Camera Exhibition Kicks Off Fifth Year at ArtsEye Gallery

If you have an affinity for photography, or are camera-challenged but inquisitive into how the medium works, the ArtsEye Gallery’s annual Curious Camera Event might be a fitting event for your weekend agenda.

Returning for the fifth year on Saturday, the Curious Camera Gallery encourages visitors to “embrace the unpredictability and fascination of photography” by viewing work shot with the full spectrum of cameras throughout the ages: from centuries-old pinhole cameras to iPhone images, the work in the gallery could not be more visually varied.

ArtsEye is also home to the Giant Holga camera, a plastic, fully-functioning monstrosity with dimensions 20 times larger than 120mm prototype. Photographers at the gallery rarely take the Holga out for a spin, but the camera is available for rent to parties aiming for shock value at their next photo op.

In 2007, I started ArtsEye which is a gallery that is artist and art buyer friendly. I started thinking about having an event that promoted this fun, rebel, bohemian type of photography, introduced to me by (photographer) Brion McCarthy. So my plan was to have workshops on pinhole and plastic/toy camera photography, a photographic competition with as few rules as possible, and to top it off - a gallery event.

Findysz stressed that the first event “was just the beginning,” and five years later photographers from around the world continue to submit their eclectic and technologically-diverse work for judging at ArtsEye.

The exhibition runs Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m. until July 31 at the gallery on 3550 E. Grant Rd., and the winning images can already be viewed on the ArtsEye website here. Admission to the gallery is free, and you can call 327-7291 for more information.